Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog franchise belongs SEGA, I do not own any part of it other than this story. OC belongs to me also

Chapter 2

(Eggmans Base, Location Unknown)

Sonic had been Eggmans prisoner for five days now. He wasn't entirely sure what Eggman was up to, or who his other captor actually is. Sonic had been stuck in a cell almost the entire time. When he wasn't in his cell he was strapped to a table. He'd been getting needles jabbed into him all over his body. Sonic was in pain from the abuse his body had been going through, he also felt weak from the gas Eggman would pump into his cell to knock him out whenever they moved him to another room. It was as if thinking of that triggered an action, because the next thing Sonic knew his cell was being pumped with gas yet again. He lost consciousness yet again before he was moved to the operating room for another round.

Sonic once more woke up strapped to the all familiar surgical table. He felt a sharp pain coming from chest. They'd obviously been sticking him with needles. As his vision began to clear up he started to move his head and look around the room. The first thing he noticed was the device placed next to the table on the left of him. It looked like a computer sitting atop a small bench with a robotic arm attached to it. As Sonic was summing up the machine Eggman entered the room.

"Ah good your awake, now we can proceed," Eggman stated, almost warmly.

"What are you up to Eggman?" Sonic asked.

"All in due time my dear boy. For now, let us continue with our work."

He approached the computer and pushed a few buttons on the keyboard. The arm sprung to life and swung itself around until coming to a stop above Sonics head while to clamps came out of the table and held his head in place. A few more buttons were pressed causing a long thin needle to extend from the tip of the arm, a laser pointer also activated aiming itself at Sonics left eye. Eggman entered one final command. The needle began to rotate spinning faster and faster, as it started up it let out a high pitched squealing noise. The arm moved downwards slowly bringing the needle closer to Sonics eye. After what seemed like an eternity of suspense, contact was finally made. The needle pushed itself through his pupil and deeper into his eye, the computer began making noises once the needle stopped digging. Sonic screamed in pain, jerking all of his limbs around trying to break free of his restraints. Eggman appeared to be enjoying Sonics suffering, smiling evilly and chuckling at times. Sonic was thinking the pain would never end.

After a few minutes the needle finally removed itself, it stopped spinning once it was out and retracted back into the arm. A small amount of blood trickled out of his eye as he laid there exhausted from pain and shock. Eggman was scanning over his computer.

"Excellent! The results are perfect. The tests were a complete success!" he shouted gleefully.

Sonic felt himself being dragged out of the room by one of Eggmans minions. It didn't take long until he was once again thrown roughly into his cell. Sonics eye was hurting like nothing he had ever felt before. His eye wasn't just stinging, it felt like it burning. It was as if someone was sticking his eye with a red hot poker. All Sonic could do was lay there on floor until the pain passed and try to figure out what scheme Eggman had come up with this time.

(Mobotropolis, South District)

It was now ten A.M. Rouge had just arrived outside the apartment building Connor lived in. She was waiting patiently as Connor walked onto the street to meet her.

"I'm surprised you actually showed up," Connor said to her.

"Well I did say I was going to help didn't I," she replied. "I suppose this makes us partners," she then added teasingly. Connor simply shook his head and sighed before walking down the street.

"Where are we going?" Rouge asked.

"First up I'm getting my car back, and that bastard had better not try to rip me off."

"What do you mean? And since when do you have a car?"

"You'll see," is all he said before lighting up a smoke.

They had to walk four blocks down the street to get to their location. Connor stopped walking when they arrived at mechanics shop. They walked into the building and Connor began to look around. A green eagle finally approached them after a couple of minutes.

"Connor, I was wondering when I was going to see you again," the eagle said. Rouge figured they knew one another.

"I'm not here to talk David, where's my damn car," Connor bitterly said to him.

"Come into my office," David replied before walking off, he appeared to be limping.

His office, if you could call it that, wasn't very much to look at. It was a small room with a table and few chairs around it. David sat down on the side of the table closest to the wall while Rouge and Connor took the two seats opposite him.

"What happened to your leg?" Connor asked him.

"I fell down some stairs, damaged my left knee pretty badly too, but anyway that's not what we're here to talk about. You want your car back Connor, well now you see there's a bit of a problem there, you're going to have to pay if you want it."

"You want me to pay extra to get my car back?"

"That's right, another two grand and you can have it back," David smirked.

Connor gave a sigh and then reached under the table and grabbed Davids bad knee, he then began to squeeze tightly. David let out a yell as pain coursed through his from the pressure being applied, he tried to remove Connors hand but grip was to tight.

"You can have it back for a grand then," David squeaked in pain. Connor squeezed tighter still, causing more pain to rush through his leg. "Fine screw it, here's the keys," he finally gave in while taking a set of keys out of his pocket and throwing them on the table.

"I'm glad we could come to an arrangement," Connor said while picking up the keys and releasing David's knee. David jerked back in relief and clutched his knee groaning in pain.

"That was interesting yet effective way of haggling," Rouge playfully said as they walked out.

Connor and Rouge left the office and entered the workshop. Connor found his car and pulled off the cover they had over it. Underneath was a black 1969 style Camaro.

"Nice ride," Rouge complimented while she stepped into the passenger seat.

"It's about time I got it back," Connor replied, he starting the engine a drove out onto the street.

"So what now?" Rouge asked him.

"Now, we find someone who can point us in the right direction. And I know just who to speak to."

Connor switched on the CD player in the car, heavy metal music instantly started playing through the speakers. Rouge couldn't stand the music that was playing but it seemed to calm Connor down, she didn't say anything and instead just tried to bear with the music.

They drove for twenty minutes into East side of the city. Connor parked the car outside of a takeaway shop, he and Rouge stepped out of the car and walked inside the store.

"Why are we stopping for food?" Rouge bluntly questioned Connor.

"Who said anything about food", he replied as they stepped up to the counter.

A brown fox approached the counter not looking at them. "Hello, what I can get you?" he asked. The fox looked up and locked eyes with Connor for a good five seconds. The fox motioned behind him and walked to back of the store. Connor and Rouge stepped outside and walked into an alleyway behind the shop, the fox was waiting there for them.

"What do you need this time?" he asked once they approached him.

"Well hello to you to Jason. Anyway, I'm after any information you might have on the disappearance of Sonic the Hedgehog," Connor replied.

"Yeah I've heard a couple of things, they might just be rumors but it's info none the less. Who's the chick?" Jason said, directing the last part at Rouge.

"Don't worry, she's with me," Connor answered, he pulled out a couple of hundred dollar notes and handed them to Jason.

"Ok, word around is that one of the local gangs may have had something to do with it. You've heard of The Grimms right?" Jason said.

"I know of them. However no one knows where their hideouts are, they're constantly changing the location," Rouge cut in.

"Is that all you got?" Connor asked him.

"Not quite, one their members drives a dump truck, he's sort of in and out with the gang. He'll be making a stop at an alleyway three blocks down from here in twenty minutes. It's in between a diner and a warehouse. He might be able to tell you something," Jason finished.

"Well that's something to go on at least, thanks for the info," Connor said before he and Rouge walked back to the car.

"Since when do you have contacts?" Rouge asked stepping back into the car.

"He's not a contact. He's just a guy who keeps his ear to the ground. Whenever I need some form of information I go see him. He isn't a snitch, but for the right price he could tell you just about anything you want to know. You'd be surprised by the amount of shit he knows," Connor replied.

Connor began driving down the street again. It didn't take them long to get to their destination. They still had fifteen minutes until their man would show up. Rouge started to become bored with just sitting in the car waiting. She chose to see if she could get Connor talk about where had been for the last three years.

"So Connor, I don't suppose you feel like sharing what you've been doing since you disappeared?" she asked. Connor didn't reply, he just continued staring out the window.

"Come on Connor, surely you have something to share," she persisted. Still no answer. Rouge began to get frustrated with his ignorance. "I'm your friend Connor, why can't you talk to me?"

"Because there's nothing to talk about," he finally replied. "My personal life is my own business and no one else's," he added angrily.

Rouge realized she had gone to far with all the questioning. She opted to keep quiet for the rest of the wait as not to upset Connor any further. The fifteen minutes passed by and a garbage truck finally backed into the the alley Jason mentioned.

"Right on time," Connor mentioned while looking at his watch, they saw a grey wolf get out of the truck and walk round behind it. Before exiting the car Connor reached into glove box and pulled out a simple 9mm pistol.

"What are you doing?!" Rouge asked, slightly alarmed.

"If this guy really is part of a gang, one of the worst gangs in the city should I mention, I'm not taking any chances," he calmly answered.

Slipping the pistol into his jacket pocket he stepped out of the car and walked over to the truck with Rouge close behind. The wolf was at the back of the truck calmly doing his job, throwing trash bags in to be crushed. He stopped what he was doing and turned his attention to Rouge and Connor once they approached him.

"Can I help you two," he enquired.

"Yes I think you can. I'm looking for someone, or should I say some people, and I'm positive you could lend me a hand with finding them," Connor answered. He almost sounded as if he was toying with the wolf.

"What in the world are you talking about?" he replied confused.

"The Grimms, where are they?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," the wolf answered, going back to throwing garbage in the truck.

"So you say," Rouge said to him.

The wolf stopped what he was doing again and looked at Rouge. He suddenly threw a punch directed at Connors head. Unfortunately for him Connor caught the punch, following up by grabbing the front of the wolfs shirt and throwing him inside the back of the truck. He then took hold of the lever for the crushing mechanism and pulled it. The solid steel plate began slowly moving down towards the wolf.

"Wait wait wait!" he panicked, Connor stopped the crushing cycle. "I honestly don't know anything!"

"Wrong answer," Connor yelled, starting the cycle again.

Rouge was standing off to the side, in shock of Connors brutality. This was not the man she knew three years ago. He used to be a kind and caring kind of person. He would have condoned this kind of behavior.

"Got something you want to share," Connor asked the wolf.

"Ok I'll talk! I'll talk!" The crusher was stopped three quarters of the way down.

"I'm listening," Connor said impatiently.

"Ok listen. The Grimms hideout at the moment is at an abandoned petrol station outside the city. It's twenty kilometers out from the south side. You can't tell them I told you this or they'll kill me!"

"Thank you for being so cooperative," Connor sarcastically replied. He then started to leave.

"Hey wait!" the wolf yelled out. The gap the crusher left was to tight for him to squeeze through. "Aren't you going to let me out!?"

"Someone will find you sooner or later and release you," Connor yelled back, leaving the wolf stuck inside the truck.

Inside the car Rouge was staring at Connor. He noticed her gaze out of the corner of his eye.

"Ok what's the stare for? Did I frighten you back there or something?" he asked.

"What happened to you Connor? Surely you didn't get like this just because you caught Mina cheating on you."

"Are you joking?! That was only part of it. The fact that nobody had my back during the whole ordeal is why I left. I found out who my true friends were then. As it turns out, none of them cared!" he replied angrily.

Rouge hadn't been around when it happened but she had heard about it. She suddenly realized what he meant. Apparently when Connor caught Mina and Sonic nobody took his side. All of his friends defended Sonic. They said he should just let it go, among other things as well. It only got worse when he was told they had been seeing each two weeks prior to him catching them. A few of his friends had known and hadn't said anything. After that, he disappeared.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up," Rouge apologized.

"No it's," Connor paused and let out a deep sigh, "it's alright. I've just got a lot of pent up anger and frustration in me."

"If it helps, I'm here if you ever want to talk to somebody," Rouge offered placing her hand on his shoulder.

He turned his head to face her. For the past three years he had believed that nobody gave a damn about him. Yet here was Rouge, showing actual concern for his well being. He could see in her eyes that she meant what she said, they showed true sincerity.

"Thanks," he replied, placing his own hand on top of hers.

She smiled and withdrew her hand from his shoulder. A smirk began to appear on her face.

"Now then, how about we get back to business a pay this gang a visit," she said changing the subject.

"That could be a problem," he replied.

"How so?"

"The tracker on my leg, remember. As soon as I leave the city limits it'll activate. Before you know it we'll have half of the city's cops on our ass. They've threatened to throw me in prison if I ever try to leave before my time with it is up."

"I see. Hey, you never did tell me how you got stuck with that thing in first place."

It was Connors turn to smirk now.

"I got into an argument with couple of guys at one of the local bars around here. Next thing you know, the argument has turned into an all out fist fight. I didn't realize they were cops until after I beat them. More trouble came after I refused to leave when the bouncers asked me to. We broke a stool on the way out that I refused to pay for, I refused to pay for it because 'we' broke it over 'my' thigh."

Rouge couldn't help but laugh when he mentioned how the stool was broken.

"Well I'm glad you're finding amusement from my misfortune," Connor sarcastically said.

"Come on, it is kind of funny."

"Yeah I suppose it is just a little funny."

Connor seemed to be lightening up a little. Rouge didn't want to push her luck by asking to many personal questions, she was however beginning to somewhat enjoy his company. Memories from the past suddenly started coming back to her. She and Connor had been quite good friends back then. They had always gotten along well, they'd even been able to relate to a few things with one another. Thievery had been one of those things. They loved swapping stories of some of the best heists they'd pulled off. She was actually the only person he shared those particular stories with.

"Rouge? Hey Rouge," Connor said waving a hand in front of her face.

"Wha-what? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," she replied snapping out of her thoughts and back into reality.

"Yeah I noticed that. Anyway, what I said was, maybe there's a way we can get my tracker switched off for a little while so we can actually leave town."

"That could work. Perhaps with my position in G.U.N. I could get you an authorization for it."

"Not likely. The fact that the Mobotropolis Police were the ones that sentenced me means you don't have any jurisdiction in the matter. I was thinking we should give Sally a call. I'm sure she'd be able to help us out."

"It's worth a shot."

"I'll make the call then."

(At Castle Acorn)

Sally was sitting in her bedroom, anxiously waiting for any news from Connor or Rouge on their search. Her phone suddenly began ringing.

"Hello," she answered

"Hey there Sally," it was Connor on the other line.

"Connor, is that you?"

"No it's fricken Santa Clause, what do you think?" he replied sarcastically.

"I'm not in the mood for this Connor, where are you?"

"I'm at a phone booth on the East side of the city."

"Do you have any news Sonic yet?" she asked, there was a hint of hopefulness in her voice.

"Nothing solid yet, but that's not why I'm calling. We've hit a roadblock."

"What do you mean?"

Connor told her everything about not being able to leave the city and why he actually needed to leave. She was a little uncertain at first, thinking he might try and do a dash after his tracker came off. She agreed to help once he explained that he only needed it deactivated, not removed. In the end she was able to give him twenty-four hours. He thanked her and mentioned that he would let her know if anything came up.

Sally hung up her phone, she felt a little upset that Connor hadn't found anything on Sonic yet, then again he hadn't been searching for very long. She was suddenly startled when she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in," she said.

Tails opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind him. He appeared to be carrying some sort of folder under his arm, it looked to be rather thick as well. He sat down on the bed next to Sally.

"I found this in one of my drawers at home, I thought maybe you would like to look through it with me," he said, handing the folder to Sally.

She lifted up the hard cover flipping to the first page of the folder, it didn't take long for her to realize Tails had brought a photo album to her.

"There's a lot of old pictures in there, but there are quite a few recent ones as well. I thought that maybe if we remembered the good times in our lives, we could take our minds of this bad one we're going through," Tails said with a warm smile.

Sally returned the smile and turned the first page. As they were looking through the photos they talked about all the adventures they'd had from the memories the pictures brought back. Laughter and a little embarrassment here and there filled the room as each page was turned. Sally didn't realize that Tails had kept such a large collection of photos, but right now she was glad he did. The photos seemed to range from the absolutely beautiful to the downright hilarious. Tails tried to quickly flip the page when a picture of a very young him showed up. Sally stopped him however and then went on to playfully tease him about how he used to act back then. She remembered how she used to read him bedtime stories before he went to sleep, and the times she had to comfort him during thunderstorms when got scared. She couldn't help but chuckle at those memories.

Sally realized how much Tails had grown over the years compared to back then, maturity wise and physically. His maturity was far beyond that of most people his age. He had also gone through quite a big growth spurt a while back, he was now slightly taller than Sally.

Still looking through the photo album she suddenly froze when she saw one the pictures. It was a photo of Connor and Sonic before they had their falling out. They were facing the camera smiling. Sonic had his left hand clenched in a fist and hit resting on his hip, his right arm was simply next to his leg. Connor had his left hand placed on Sonics shoulder, his other hand was in his jacket pocket. Sally ran her hand across the photo.

"Our two lost friends," she muttered, she didn't realize Tails had heard her.

"Connor's not lost anymore you know," he said to her.

"In a way Tails, he is lost. He's changed, he doesn't seem to be our friend anymore."

"I guess you are right there. We can at least hope that when Sonic's back all of that will change."

"Yes, hope. I suppose hope is all we really have at this moment," she said with quiet chuckle.

Tails turned the page for Sally hoping to snap her out of the train of thought she was in, it worked as she then thanked him for bringing album for them to look through. Sally gave Tails a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before they went back to looking through his photos.